The present invention concerns a table leg apparatus that is convertible between a position underneath and supporting a single article of furniture, such as a table, to a position capable of supporting two adjacent articles.
The needs of modern office layout design have dictated the design of the office furniture components. One important feature for these office furniture components is modularity. Elements of modular office furniture can be mixed and matched, and combined into a variety of configurations. For instance, a modular table system can be arranged into a variety of table configurations for use as a small conference table, a large meeting table, or a training center. With a typical modular furniture system, several interchangeable components are provided that can be stored when not in use and that can be interconnected to form the variety of layouts.
Most modular furniture elements have small mechanisms for connecting adjacent elements. For example, various table ganging plates have been made available to directly connect existing "stand alone" tables. For example, the metal fastening plate of Waller, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,290,710, is a plate that is directly fastened to adjacent tables. In a refinement of that general concept, the patent to Burr, U.S. Pat. No. 4,665,836, shows a table interconnecting apparatus in which a plate is slidable from a position underneath one table to a position interconnecting two adjacent tables.
While the Waller and Burr plates permit interconnection of furniture elements, the elements themselves must be "stand alone" units. In other words, each of a pair of tables ganged together using either one of these prior devices must have its own full complement of table legs.
In order to enhance the modularity of office furniture elements, it has been found desirable to reduce the number of support legs for some of the modular elements. Reducing the number of support legs not only increases the versatility of a modular system it also reduces the storage requirements for those elements. In one approach, a modular table includes removable table legs that can be connected solely beneath a single table, or can be connected to span between adjacent tables. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,232,303 and 5,528,996 show two such interconnecting table legs. In both cases, the table legs are "plugged into" fixtures mounted within the underside of the adjacent tables. As disclosed in these two patents, each table leg is configured to be plugged into a single fixture in one table, or into portions of two fixtures in adjacent tables.
In another approach, a table leg is mounted to a plate that is pivoted or rotated between its operating positions. Examples of this approach are shown in the patent of Noakes, U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,749, and McDaniel et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,545. In both cases, an individual table leg is affixed to a plate that is pivoted about a single point. The plate, and therefore the table leg, can assume a position directly underneath one table, or can be pivoted to a position in which the plate and the leg span the joint between the adjacent tables.
One principal drawback with the swinging or rotating plate approach of the '545 and '749 patents is that several of the fasteners used to attach the plates to the tabletops must be removed, leaving a single fastener about which the leg assembly is pivoted. A further determent of this approach is that the action of pivoting the table legs is physically awkward and requires the user to be able to manipulate the leg assembly while underneath the tables.
A further problem with these prior approaches is that the rotating or pivoting concept only works for a single table leg extended from the rotated plate. For stability, many modular furniture elements require a double leg assembly. A double leg assembly includes a pair of leg posts affixed to a single plate, with each leg post having floor engaging elements, such as glides or casters. Typically, the double post leg assembly will also include a horizontal bar spanning between the two leg posts near the base of the legs. The resulting "H" shape of the double post leg has been found to provide greater stability to the table then a traditional single post, "T" shaped leg.
Consequently, there remains a need for a table leg apparatus that can be converted for use with a single table or between adjacent interconnected tables. There is further a need for such an apparatus that can accommodate a double post leg configuration.